Djurovic: Quint states changed stance on Pristina's CoE bid in past two weeks

STRASBOURG - The so-called Kosovo's bid for Council of Europe (CoE) membership was not discussed by the institution's Committee of Ministers on Wednesday after Iceland, the chair of the meeting, did not propose its inclusion in the agenda, says Serbia's Ambassador to the CoE Aleksandra Djurovic.

"Two weeks ago, at a meeting held on January 18, we had a debate on the issue and it became clear that there is no unified position of the member states and that there are differing views about the timeframe in which it could appear on the agenda," Djurovic said in a statement to Tanjug.

That did not happen at the time, but there was an intent to put Pristina's application on the agenda on February 1, she said.

"However, in the two-week period we were able to see a change in the position of some of the most significant countries - in this case, the Quint states. Primarily, here in Strasbourg, Italy came forward with the position that this is not the time to raise that issue given the situation on the ground - that is, the recent numerous violations of the human rights of Serbs," Djurovic said.

She said the position had later been backed by France and, a few days ago, Germany.

"They expect a more constructive approach by Pristina in the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue," she said.

When asked to comment on reports that US embassies had sent a joint note to the foreign ministries of some CoE member states, requesting that the issue of the so-called Kosovo's CoE membership not be put on the Committee's agenda until Pristina changed its stance on a Community of Serb Municipalities in Kosovo-Metohija, Djurovic responded that she could neither confirm nor deny them.

"I can only say that has not happened in Strasbourg itself, but it may have taken place at bilateral level because the US is an active party in the dialogue itself. As we have been able to see, (US special Western Balkans envoy Gabriel) Escobar has made statements indicating their interest in the dialogue being successful. But the US is not a CoE member state, they have observer status here, so, in fact, the Quint countries that are the most active on that issue here are Italy, France and Germany," Djurovic concluded.